


asterion

by d_v_whelan



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 03:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20789843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d_v_whelan/pseuds/d_v_whelan
Summary: The Minotaur was not the villain of the story.





	asterion

**Author's Note:**

> this is a poem written in roundel form (two roundels) followed by a rhyme royal. i wrote this in one sitting without editing it so hehe

That boy loved the stars, so they gave him his name.

Asterion: boy, beloved, cow-eyed brother,

and for his father's sins, he took all the blame.

That boy loved the stars.

All he had wanted was the love of his mother,

and she tried; at first. Then he was just something to tame.

Or so they said. Perhaps it'd be better, had he been raised by some other?

Like the stars, for example. Or a maze. To he and his holy-faced sister it was a game.

That game ended when she caught eyes for another.

He was made to be the evil, that cow-eyed devil, lying in wait, in shame.

That boy had loved the stars.

Like other legends, of love and truth and glory, that is not the story told.

When they locked him in—

Did they ever wonder? Was it lonesome? Was it cold?

That is not the story told.

There's a reason his heart grew hard, his soul collapsing from within;

he was not this way when first Minos expelled him, forcing him to withhold

any claim he had to personhood. To belonging. To make him give up his kin.

One followed: Ariadne. You don't so easily forget a brother, even one so taurine; she was bold.

But like I said, her spirit wandered. Her devotion waned. She provided the clew that did him in.

You don't so easily forget a sister's betrayal. Abandonment for a boy made of gold.

Theseus's heroism; or Asterion's undoing? That is not the story told.

He was the son of sin and shame and stars

whose innocence Pasiphae turned to hate.

A cow-eyed boy child loved by his scars

all his life made to sit out and to wait.

And Daedalus sealed the lock on the great golden gate.

The Achaeans created their own silver-spun tale

— and starry-eyed Minotaur became the enemy.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me @ttelemachus on tumblr! + as always, comments are appreciated.


End file.
